Saving Seafood

HAWAII: Green Sea Turtles Have Rebounded. Should Hawaiians Be Able To Eat Them?

November 5, 2025 — Mac Poepoe grew up diving in the waters off Molokaʻi to spear honu — Hawai‘i’s distinct species of green sea turtle — that helped feed his family. He also often saw other fishermen hunt honu for profit, selling its prized meat to shops and restaurants across the channel on Maui.

Those widespread commercial killings helped land the honu on the federal endangered species list in 1978, when Poepoe, a lifelong Friendly Isle resident, was 29 years old. The move didn’t include any cultural exemptions for Hawaiians such as Poepoe, who had sustainably harvested the turtles for generations.

“What it does, it criminalizes us,” Poepoe said Friday. “That law applies to everybody like us that was born eating turtle. It’s not our primary source of food, but it’s one of our resources that we rely on.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature — a network of governments and conservation groups — actually declared that Hawaiian green sea turtles were no longer endangered more than a decade ago. The federal government, however, still designates the species as endangered and Hawaiian green sea turtles are still protected under U.S. law.

Then, last month, the group expanded its declaration to cover green sea turtles worldwide, saying it considers them a species of “least concern,” meaning they have a less than 10% chance of going extinct in the next century.

Weeks earlier, Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds asked federal fisheries leaders to help restore rights to kill some green sea turtles for cultural purposes, such as special meals.

Read the full article at Civil Beats

Tuna recovering – IUCN Red List

September 7, 2021 — The populations of four of the most commercially fished tuna species are showing signs of recovery but rising sea levels mean the Komodo dragon is now classed as endangered on the latest Red List of species at risk of extinction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that compiles the list is also stepping up monitoring of marine species such as coral and deep sea snails to see how they are impacted by climate change and threats such as deep sea mining.

“Ocean species tend to be neglected as they are under the water and people don’t really pay attention to what is happening to them,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List unit, told Reuters.

But as catch quotas and efforts to target illegal fishing showed signs of working, the outlook for tuna appears to be improving.

Atlantic bluefin tuna, a huge warm-blooded migratory predator that is prized for sushi and can sell for thousands of dollars, jumped three categories from “endangered” to “least concern” on the list, although some regional stocks remained severely depleted.

Read the full story at Reuters

Tool predicts which native fish species are most at risk from lionfish predators

August 23, 2021 — Coastal countries have between two and five years to act to protect native fish species once voracious lionfish arrive in their waters, according to a University of Alberta ecology professor who helped create a tool to predict which fish are in danger.

The lionfish, originally a popular aquarium species native only to the Pacific and Indian oceans, is now a highly  throughout the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, where they are known to consume hundreds of .

“There’s lots of concern about what their impacts will be and also which species are at risk,” said Stephanie Green, Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Global Change Ecology and Conservation in the Faculty of Science. “They’re the perfect invader.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

UK Government Introduces New Ban On Shark Fin Trade

August 20, 2021 — In order to promote shark conservation, a ban has been initiated on the import and export of detached shark fins, the UK Government announced. This ban will include shark fin products like tinned shark fin soup.

Shark species are facing population decline, and shark finning is a huge force behind this. Out of over 500 species of shark, 143 are listed as ‘under threat’ under the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A key indicator and sign of ocean health is the presence and amount of sharks in marine areas. Sharks also play a major role in marine ecosystems because they help maintain healthy and normal levels of fish lower to them in the food chain.

Read the full story at Seafood News

US, EU to push harder for proposed Antarctic marine protected areas

May 10, 2021 — The United States recently announced it was joining the European Union and several other countries in pushing for the designation of two marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.

Both the U.S. and the E.U. now officially support the creation of the East Antarctic and Weddell Sea MPAs, to be overseen by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The designations would move the world nearly 1 percent closer to achieving the goal of protecting 30 percent of the global ocean, called for in 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and recently adopted as an official policy goal of the United States in an executive order issued by President Joe Biden.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Key U.S. Pacific Fishery Council Takes Vital Step to Protect Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

April 27, 2021 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) took a major step forward at its March meeting by recommending the prohibition of wire leaders on the Hawaii deep-set longline tuna fishery in the western Pacific Ocean. Wire leaders, also known as steel trace, are used by vessels fishing for bigeye tuna, but when sharks are accidentally caught on the line, they are unable to free themselves and frequently die as bycatch. This is a problem for the oceanic whitetip shark, which is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  A switch to nylon, or monofilament, leaders, which are easier for sharks to bite through, would reduce mortality and help give this shark population a chance to recover.

In addition, the council recommended the development of a requirement to remove as much fishing line, or trailing gear, from an accidentally caught shark as possible—that is, to cut the line as close to the shark as possible before release. That would further protect sharks once freed from a longline. Council staff estimated that these two requirements would reduce mortality by 17% to 36%.

It’s now critical that the council finalize these much-needed decisions at its June meeting and that federal fishery managers implement them. The recommendations have wide support—including from the Hawaii Longline Association, which announced that its member fishing vessels would voluntarily ban wire leaders months before the council recommendation.

Read the full story at Pew Charitable Trusts

North Atlantic right whales listed as ‘critically endangered’ — one step below extinction

July 16, 2020 — North Atlantic right whales are now listed as “critically endangered,” with approximately only 400 remaining, data from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium states. Given this striking plummet in population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) relisted the species as “critically endangered” from its previous “endangered.”

The Smithsonian Magazine reports that the majority of right whale deaths over the past three years have been a result of encountering boats and fishing endeavors along the coastal U.S. and Canada. Right whales reportedly swim with their mouths open to eat, and are often fatally entangled in nets and lines cast for lobsters and fish.

“We are running out of time to save these magnificent yet very vulnerable animals,” said Vikki N. Spruill, the New England Aquarium’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Whaling nearly killed right whales in the early 1900s. Science tells us that we need to take immediate and urgent steps to prevent that from happening now.”

The right whales have been suffering population declines since 2017, when there was a total of 17 confirmed dead whales between U.S. and Canadian waters. While numbers in 2018 and 2019 were not that large, an additional 13 deaths were recorded cumulatively, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries data.

Read the full story at The Hill

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Updates Classification of the North Atlantic Right Whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered

July 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently changed its Red List Category for North Atlantic right whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered. The criteria used to evaluate this change are outlined in the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, Section V. Within the United States, North Atlantic right whales are already in the highest risk category possible under both the Marine Mammal Protection Act (Strategic and Depleted) and Endangered Species Act (Endangered).

In 2019, NOAA Fisheries also added North Atlantic right whales to our Species in the Spotlight initiative, which focuses resources on the most imperiled endangered species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction. While IUCN Red List categories have no direct relationship to categorizations under the MMPA or ESA, NOAA Fisheries shares the IUCN’s concern for North Atlantic right whales. We continue to use our authority under the MMPA and ESA to protect and recover the species.

Read the full release here

International conservation group designates right whales as critically endangered

July 10, 2020 — In a move that puts pressure on federal officials to do more to protect the species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature on Thursday designated North Atlantic right whales as “critically endangered” on its Red List of Threatened Species, the last classification before they’re considered extinct or “gone from the wild.”

The updated status highlights the need to protect a species that is believed to have fewer than 400 animals left, with only about 85 reproductive females, environmental advocates said. The IUCN, a leading global conservation organization, found their population declined by 15 percent between 2011 and 2018 and estimated there are only about 250 mature whales left.

“The dramatic declines of species such as the North Atlantic right whale … highlight the gravity of the extinction crisis,” Jane Smart, global director of IUCN’s biodiversity conservation group, said in a statement. “The world needs to act fast to halt species’ population declines and prevent human-driven extinctions.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Smooth Handfish Extinction Marks a Sad Milestone

July 10, 2020 — For centuries humans believed the ocean was so vast that it was impossible to do it measurable harm. But we now know human activities can destroy critical marine habitats, dangerously pollute seawater and make sea environments more acidic. Overharvesting has disrupted food chains and directly pushed many ocean species into the critically endangered category—and has driven some animals, including Steller’s sea cow, into total extinction. This past March the smooth handfish, Sympterichthys unipennis, officially became the first modern-day marine fish to be declared extinct.

Handfish are a family of 14 unusual bottom-dwelling species related to deep-sea anglerfish. Unlike most other fishes, they do not have a larval phase and do not move around very much as adults; these traits make them sensitive to environmental changes, according to Graham Edgar, a marine ecologist at the University of Tasmania. “They spend most of their time sitting on the seabed, with an occasional flap for a few meters if they’re disturbed,” Edgar says. “As they lack a larval stage, they are unable to disperse to new locations—and consequently, handfish populations are very localized and vulnerable to threats.” In 1996, he adds, another species called the spotted handfish was the first marine fish listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

The smooth handfish was once common enough to be one of the first fish species described by European explorers in Australia. Now none has been reported in well over a century, despite frequent scientific sampling in its known range (including by Edgar and his colleagues). Red List guidelines officially define “extinct” as meaning “there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.” Edgar and the members of Australia’s National Handfish Recovery Team were forced to that conclusion earlier this year, and the Red List placed it in the extinct category. Scientists are unsure exactly what finished off the species, but others in the region are threatened by trawl fishing, pollution and climate change.

Read the full story at Scientific American